The Proletarianization of Palestinians in Israel (ص 194)
غرض
- عنوان
- The Proletarianization of Palestinians in Israel (ص 194)
- المحتوى
-
194
"Those cornerstones on which our future society will be built
are simple healthy Sephardic and Yemenite workers, potential
proletariat, a great portion of the diggers, camel drivers,
and porters." 86
This quote suggests that the place of Oriental Jews in Israel's social
division of labor, specifically their over-representation in unskilled and
semi-skilled manual labor, was not accidental, but pre-planned, subject to
requirements of capitalist development under the ideological hegemony of
Labor-Zionism. This quote further reinforces our conviction that the mobil-
ization of Oriental~Jews into Palestine was imperative for the proletarian,
not other, Zionist strategy. This point, in turn, defies the Zionist claim
of the refugee status of Israeli-Jews from Arab countries; and the at-
tempt of the Zionist movement to equate the presence of Jews from Arab
countries in Israel with the presence of Palestinians in Arab exile.
The use of unorganized Oriental-Jewish labor, although it provided a
measure of flexibility to Jewish employees, did not resolve the contradic-~
tion inherent in the practice of Labor-Zionism. The more displaced and
boycotted Arab labor was, the more competitive it became. The "boycott
Arab labor" slogan was in contradiction with capitalist rationality inher-
ent in the Jewish proletarianization/capitalization imperative.
Zionist material and non-material incentives (including subsidies to
Jewish employers by the Jewish Agency °4) were not capable of detering Jew-
ish capitalists from the essential profitability incentives. Where it was
possible to reap super profit and where it was inappropriate for Jewish
labor to work (e.g., below subsistence wages and/or rough manual work,
like mining, etc.), Arab labor was still employed. According to the Esco
Foundation of Palestine:
"In practice, Jewish industrial as well as agricultural enter-
prise employs a considerable amount of Arab labor. Such indus- - تاريخ
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- المنشئ
- Najwa Hanna Makhoul
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